re: Louisiana's trespass laws lock anglers out of most coastal marshes

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In Louisiana, however, courts have ruled that landowners may claim even the tidal waters adjacent to their marshes. That's because of the outfall of a case that didn't even originate in Louisiana.

In Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Mississippi, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-3 decision that ownership of lands subject to the Public Trust Doctrine includes all tidal lands. In Louisiana, the Public Trust Doctrine states that "Louisiana claims the beds and bottoms of all navigable waters and the banks or shores of bays, arms of the sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and navigable lakes and declares the state's policy to be that these lands and water bottoms are public lands and shall be protected, administered, and conserved to best ensure full public navigation, fishery, recreation, and other interests."

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